SCORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 This would be the week between Innsbruck and Krakow.

The Weeks are flying by way to fast for my liking.  Way too fast.  I don't want to think about it.  So I won't.

This week in Rome was wonderful!  Monday's on sight was intense.  We went to ten different Churches, all beautiful and so different.  We went to multiple Jesuit Churches; I didn't know what an influence the Jesuits had in Rome.

Tuesday was wonderful because I caught up on sleep.  I am sick (but not letting that slow me down) and the extra couple hours I had were so nice!  Tutoring with Laura is going really well.  I think we're improving, and she'll be ready for her big test in May.  She has so much trouble with the fill in the blank part of the tests, and there is no word bank, so really it's just a combination of knowing everything.

Wednesday's Art in Rome class was interesting, but we went to churches.  Which I normally love, but we went to 4 churches.  And ALL four were ones I went to on Monday for Theology of Pilgrimage. Although I learned different things about them, it would have been nice to go to a new place.  The four I returned to were
1. Santa Maria degli Angeli e Martedi.
     This church used to be the Baths of Diocletian.  Nero hired 40,000 Christians to build the baths, and after it was completed he killed most of them.  The Church was built here in honor of the martyers who died during the building of the project.
     Also at one point there was a Michaelangelo sculpture, but it is now in the Borghese Garden Galleries.  But there is a very interesting astronomy aspect, which I think I wrote about way back when I went to the church for the first time.

2.  Santa Maria Vittoria  is a church where the Cornaro Chapel is.  The Cornaro Chapel was designed by Bernini and his famous Ecstasy of St. Teresa is the main sculpture. It's very beautiful.

3. San Carlos and  4. San Andrea.  I really like both of these churches for different reasons.  They are more oval shaped than the traditional cross shape, and the domes and ceilings are beautiful.

As always, my Wednesdays end with calcio.  Blackout won the game 6-1.  And I scored my first goal!!!  For the first half there were only 6 of us who showed up.  (We play 5 on the field and the goalie).  Later on two more team members showed up, but I ended up playing the whole game.  I'm only bragging about my goal, because I am so bad at soccer.  It will probably never happen again, so I'm basking in my glory.

Thursday
Well I'm still sick today, which is sort of a bummer, but my paper was done early, felt like I was in good shape for my test, and am packed for Krakow tomorrow.  I just got back from La Bella e Bestia (Beauty and the Beast, an Italian Musical)  with my Lauren.  Pictures were, obviously, not allowed, but that didn't stop me from copying and pasting the ones they have on their website for your enjoyment!!


Random Facts
1.  Beauty and the Beast is easy to follow, no matter what the language is.

2. There were way more adult jokes in the Italian version than in the American version.

3.  Belle is still my favorite Disney Princess.

Snow Covered Hills

April 3, 2011Innsbruck, Austria

sorry for the delay in posts, but life got a bit hectic.

We arrived to Innbruck rather late, so we didn't see too much, but in the morning I woke up to mountains that were even closer to me than the ones in Bolzano.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  I don't even know how to describe it.  I've never seen mountains this beautiful or this close. 

A shot of the mountains.

Innsbruck was mostly a site seeing day, because we didn't have too much time.  I'm really  bummed I didn't research better, because apparently anyone can bobsled down the Olympic bobsled sledding hill thing.  Although, I think it might just be sledding, because I can't imagine them letting inexperienced people bobsled, especially after what happened to a professional in the last winter Olympics.

The first monument I saw exiting the train station was the Triumphforte: Innsbruck's arch of triumph.  The Arch was created to commemorate the marriage of  Maria Ludovica and Emperor Leopold II.  The other side commemorates the death of Emperor Leopold the I, who died during the wedding celebrations.

Triumphforte

After that we made our way to Old Town.  I really liked the architecture of Old Town and the colors.  

My attempt at an artsy picture.  But at least it shows the pretty houses with the mountains.

In Old Town we saw the Golden Roof which was built in the 15th century. It was built so Emperor
Maximilian I could sit on a balcony and watch the sports in the square below him. The Golden Roof is one of the top attractions on everything that I read before going to Innsbruck, but in my opinion it was one of the least exciting.

I also went to the Jesuit church which was beautiful inside.  On the ceiling there are paintings representing four continents.  This can also be seen in St. Ignatius in Rome, so maybe it's a Jesuit thing.  I'll have to look into it more. The architecture was of the Baroque style.  I found the inside to be much prettier than the exterior.

We went up to the cupola of a tower to see what was proclaimed as the best view of Innsbruck.  Here I felt so close to the mountains it was amazing.  I could see over all the rooftops and just take in the city.

From the Cupola overlooking Innsbruck.  I felt super close to the mountains.

I saw many other sites such as the Imperial Palace, a few more churches, etc, but I really loved just wandering the streets and enjoying the view of the mountains.

Random Street in Innsbruck.

I quickly found my favorite part of Innsbruck when we stopped at the river. I loved how the colorful houses looked against the mountains and behind the river. 

I really liked the mountains behind the houses behind the river, but it was hard to take a picture of.  I have about 54 on my camera in the attempt.

Not looking my best in my layers, but it proves I was actually there I suppose.

Before heading back we saw a parade in the main square.  It was cool to see traditional Austrian attire. We tried asking around to see what the parade was for, but we found no answers.

We saw a random parade.

The journey back was long.  We had to take a train to Brenner (the border), then catch a train to Bolzano, then back to Rome.  It was about half the price to do it that way, but I ended back in Rome at 6am Monday morning: enough time for a (much needed) shower before getting to my first class.

1.  For the whole day I had the song Danke Schoen stuck in my head.The only problem with that, besides annoying me to death all day, was the only line I know is Danke Schoen, darling, Danke Schoen.  Imagine that playing nonstop whenever you heard someone say Danke.

2.  The culture was so peaceful and the city easy to navigate. 

3.  People actually still wear the drindl and the Lederhosen.

The One With the Roller blades

Bolzano Bozen
Saturday April 2, 2011

So this weekend was much more planned out than it may seem, but a series of Roman Transportation Misfortunes led to quite a change in plans.  Thursday during my food and wine class...which by the way, now that the wine tasting is over, has become somewhat less, shall we say, thrilling.  Especially since we were presenting a group project on futuristic foods.  Don't ask.  It's not appetizing at all.  Anyway, our teacher briefly mentioned a 24 hour national transportation strike.  Now, these are very common in Italy, especially Rome.  Usually though, they are regional, so national presented quite the problem.  Of course, our train to Bolzano was canceled.  Bummer.  So Friday rolls around, and we were planning on taking the 10:30 pm train that night.  That way we'd get in around 8am Sat morning and have the whole day.  (Friday ended up being a good day though, see previous post if you are really that interested).  Back to the story.  So we are anxiously awaiting our train.  Then it comes up on the board that it was canceled.  The bus strike was suppose to end at 9pm on Friday night, but our train was originating in Naples, thus leaving before 9pm.  We (Kaitlyn, Andy, and I) waited anyway.  Maybe it was optimistic side coming out (don't act so surprised), but I just had a feeling we'd regret leaving.  Plus, we didn't have a way home since the metros and buses still were not running.  Good News.  Train was only delayed 2 hours and 15 minutes. Well we finally got on it. 

Now for some history on Bolzano-Bozen. Bolzano was originally part of Austria, however after world war II it was anexed into Italy.  (Bozen is the German name.)  All the signs in Bolzano are in Italian and German, nothing in English.  In Rome there's a pretty good chance that someone will speak a few words of English, but in Bolzano you're lucky if they know Italian.  The culture is very Austrian centered, although Italian culture has made it's way in. 

When we arrived, not too much was open, as it was still early.  We walked around to see the outsides of things and see when everything would start opening.  Our first stop was the victory monument after World War I. 

The victory monument was under some construction, but neat nonetheless.

 Then we wandered into a beautiful park. It went for miles, and there's no other way to describe it except that I wish there were parks like this everywhere!  It even had ping pong tables.  But the best part was the trampoline.  Who wouldn't want to jump on the trampoline with the mountains in the background?  Well it was one of the highlights of my day.  Kaitlyn took pictures, while Andy and I jumped to our hearts content...for seven minutes when the buzzer guy buzzed our time away.  Good thing I had tights and shorts on, hopefully the children weren't too scarred. 

Ping Pong Table in the park

We went to a market and saw lovely fresh food, and then near the park there was a flea market.  It was really cool to look around and hear all the people speaking a mixture of German and Italian.  I also enjoyed seeing what they were selling. 

Market

They actually still wear all the traditional outfits!

Near the park there was a castle, but we couldn't go in. 

Castle Marestch

We went to the Duomo. It wasn't the typical look of a church I'm use to seeing in Rome.  It is a mixture of Austrian, German, and Italian design.  My guess is partly Italian because even when it was part of Austria, the location of the city was bordering Italy.  Inside was gorgeous as well, but much simpler and plainer than Roman Churches.

Outside of the Duomo

Next I had a date with a guy who, age wise, is a bit older than me.  But the heart does what the heart wants....

My Date With the Neanderthal

So we headed to the Archeology Museum that housed Otzi, the 5300 year old Ice Man from the copper age.  A German couple were hiking in the alps (between the border of Austria and Italy) when they stumbled across a dead guy.  Naturally they assumed he died recently, as he was still intact and no animals had eaten him yet.  They were kind enough to report him, and when he was discovered, his true identity came out.  Well not right away, because it took many different professionals to finally discover his true age.  Since this all happened rather recently, within the last 15-20 years, I'm sure you remember this, but nonetheless I find it fascinating.

The part that I found really cool was all of the artifacts they found with him.  His bear fur hat, fully intact because it was found in ice underneath him, his clothes (leg warmers, shoes, everything), weapons, even a berry that functioned as a vitamin.  There was even a first aid kit!  It was so amazing, and to display it all they had to keep it in refrigerated areas at the same temperature it was found at.

Upon further investigation, and through looking at the x-rays, it seems that Otzi didn't just die in the mountains, but was murdered.  This makes it the world's first crime scene investigation!  He was about 45 years old and in decent health.  Minus his osteoarthritis, his weak right knee, and the high level of stress right before he died.  I don't know about you or Otzi, but if I was being murdered, I'm sure my stress levels would rise quite a bit.   They also were able to find out more about the copper age through all of the artifacts and through his intestines...they were able to see what his last meal was 5300 years ago!

Now for the crazy part.  There are actually people that have reached a new point of psychologically messed up.  I thought the bone church lady was off her rocker, well just wait until you read about some of these freaks. There are several people that have tried to contact Otzi, you know those people that claim they converse with the dead.  Anyhow, they decided he didn't respond because he was reincarnated.  Maybe their abilities just aren't what they thought, but the reincarnation hypothesis led to even more crazy people claiming they were otzi reincarnated!  Seriously!  The museum had on display multiply letters and articles about people that are sure the were Otzi in another life!  Now if that isn't unnerving enough for you, read the next sentence because it gets even creepier.  A woman (actually after this woman did, then multiple woman were asking for the same thing) offered to have the neanderthal's babies.  No joke.  This is 100percent not a lie, and factual  information.  They wouldn't release the original woman's name, because she was connected to the research of Otzi, but seriously what a total nutcase.  After much contemplation, they decided it would be morally wrong to force this man to have a child.  How about the poor kid that would come of that?  If it would even be a child, it'd probably come out looking like a bear. Hi, kid, you were born, but you're really just a science project and your father died over 5000 years ago.  Somebody alert the psych wards, cause that lady should be carefully looked after.

Now I bet you regret ever thinking you were crazy for talking to yourself, because that is nowhere near as cracked up as this stuff.


Anyway, Otzi was really cool, even if I'm not a fan of dead people. There were cameras so I wasn't able to take pictures, but I found this one online.  I hope I'm not going against some copyright thing, but I didn't take it....I didn't think the museum people coming after me would be worth it. 

This is Otzi.  He's 5300 years old.  Everyone says age difference doesn't matter right?

 Soprabolzano
After my date with Otzi, we were going to take a cable car up the mountain, but it wasn't working, so we took a train instead.  The first town we reached was Soprabolzano.  We were only here briefly before going up to the next town of Klobenstein.

Train to Soprabolzano.

Klobenstein reminded me of Door County.  It was absolutely beautiful.  On the train ride up we went through woods that could have been our backyard in Gill's Rock, except on mountains.  The town was quient and quaint, and it had a gorgeous view.  We went to a pub for a pint, and they only spoke German.  Luckily Andy took German in high school, and was able to spit some sentences out for us.

View of the Dolomites

Another gorgeous view.

We started in Klobenstein, but we walked to Lenmoos...it wasn't far, and we didn't even realize we walked to another town!

Random Facts
1.  When speaking English we say the language is German, when speaking German the language is Deutch, when speaking Italian the language is Tedesco.  Now, all other languages you can see the similarities (english, inglese.  italian, italiano.  spanish, espanol)  But the varieties in German don't make any sense. 

2.  Even though we were at a very high altitude, it was still almost unbearably hot. 

3.  And here it is, for any of you who continued reading/were wondering what the roller blades title was all about.  At the flea market I impulsively spent three euro on a pair of roller blades.  Then dragged them around for the rest of the weekend.  FYI roller blades are heavy to carry all weekend.   But, as much as I love running, I'm used to having multiple different ways of working out, and here I don't have that so it'll be a welcome change of pace.  Also, they were three euro, you can't beat that.  One slight problem...I haven't rollerbladed since maybe third grade...

Tivoli

Tivoli
March 26, 2011

Tivoli is a city north east of Rome in the Lazio Region.  I don't know too much about the city, except that it is gorgeous.  I hope you don't think I'm slacking with learning about it, but just wait til you learn the reason I was there, and you'll understand.  I went to Tivoli to learn how to cook.

On the way to the cooking class, however, the bus stopped at Hadrian's villa.  Hadrian's villa, besides being beautiful, was the Emperor's retreat from Rome.  Apparently he wasn't very fond of the Palatine Hill and liked  little vacation now and then.  There were over thirty buildings, and it measures about 250 square acres...although my conversion of that landage could be completely off.  In my opinion, the ruins are in pretty great shape for being nearly 2000 years old.

Villa Hadrian

More Villa Hadrian

The pool was amazing.  It looks like it was built yesterday...if people still build pools looking like that. 

Pool View Number One

Pool View Number Two

It was really a nice time exploring the villa, but I was anxious to get to my cooking class!  When we got there, the outside of the restaurant looked small. When you went in, however, the place was huge!  And old.  Very very old.  The family that runs the restaurant started it when it was just a little room; the grandpa decided to expand a bit, and when he knocked down the wall he came across rooms that were ancient.  Like thousands of years ancient.  Now they're part of the restaurant which is pretty neat if you ask me.

The ancient restaurant.

I learned how to make fettuccine, gnocchi, and bow ties along with three different sauces.  It was a lot of fun making everything, and if you're lucky enough maybe when I get home I'll impress you with my new talents, which I must say are pretty good, because after the cooking we got to eat it!

Then we went to Villa d'Este.  It is a gorgeous villa with many waterfalls and fountains!  I'll just put some pics up for you to look at.  I walked around with a few friends for an hour or two, and then we headed back to JFRC

The place had a gazillion and twelve fountains (along with a gorgeous view)

A cool boat fountain. 

.
They were very pretty...

Some of the fountains in Villa d'Este